Samantha Bradshaw

Research

Past projects

• Computational Propaganda

  Participants: Professor Philip Howard, Dr Vidya Narayanan, Dr Dimitra (Mimie) Liotsiou, Lisa-Maria Neudert, Samantha Bradshaw

  This project will focus on how bots, algorithms and other forms of automation are used by political actors in countries around the world.

News

• Social media manipulation by political actors now an industrial scale problem prevalent in over 80 countries – annual Oxford report

  13 January 2021

  The manipulation of public opinion through social media remains a growing threat to democracies around the world, according to the 2020 media manipulation survey from the Oxford Internet Institute, part of the University of Oxford.

• Use of social media to manipulate public opinion now a global problem, says new report

  26 September 2019

  Organised social media manipulation campaigns are now prevalent in 70 countries around the world (more than doubling from 28 in 2017), finds new Oxford Internet Institute report.

• New report reveals growing threat of organised social media manipulation world-wide

  20 July 2018

  The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has emerged as a critical threat to public life.

Blog

• Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media

  26 March 2018

  Authors: Philip Howard, Samantha Bradshaw

  Why and how has the rise of social media contributed to the spread of what we at the Computational Propaganda Project call “junk news”–the ...
  Read More Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media

Press

• Growing online ‘influence-for-hire’ economy opens door for foreign interference: report

  10 August 2021 Sydney Morning Herald

  
  

  “What’s up with the BBC?” In November 2020, this hashtag – #AdaApaDenganBBC – began trending on Twitter in Indonesia. What may have seemed like an organic social media campaign was, in fact, a highly organised effort by vested interests.

• Disinformation for Hire, a Shadow Industry, Is Quietly Booming

  21 July 2021 New York Times

  
  

  Back-alley firms meddle in elections and promote falsehoods on behalf of clients who can claim deniability.

• Online manipulation on a global scale

  20 January 2021 BBC Digital Planet

  
  

  Online manipulation on a global scale. Also GPS collars for grazing animals that avoid fencing and is ubiquitous connectivity increasing cybersecurity risks?

• Private firms pocketing millions from disinformation-for-hire, report says

  15 January 2021 The Irish News

  
  

  Private companies are increasingly being hired by governments and political parties to manipulate public opinion through social media, according to new research.

• A growing number of governments are spreading disinformation online

  13 January 2021 The Economist

  
  

  Such campaigns are becoming more sophisticated and harder to stop.

• Private firms pocketing millions from disinformation-for-hire, report says

  13 January 2021 Press Association

  
  

  Private companies are increasingly being hired by governments and political parties to manipulate public opinion through social media, according to new research.

• Social media manipulation by political actors an industrial scale problem, report finds

  13 January 2021 Phys Org

  
  

  Social media manipulation of public opinion is a growing threat to democracies around the world, according to the 2020 media manipulation survey from the Oxford Internet Institute, which found evidence in every one of the 80+ countries surveyed.

• Private firms pocketing millions from disinformation-for-hire, report says

  13 January 2021 The Oxford Mail

  
  

  Private companies are increasingly being hired by governments and political parties to manipulate public opinion through social media, according to new research.

• Social media manipulation by political actors an industrial scale problem – Oxford report

  13 January 2021 Mirage News

  
  

  Social media manipulation of public opinion is a growing threat to democracies around the world, according to the 2020 media manipulation survey from the Oxford Internet Institute, which found evidence in every one of the 80+ countries surveyed.

• How Russia’s Troll Farm Is Changing Tactics Before the Fall Election

  29 March 2020 The New York Times

  
  

  The Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency, which interfered in the 2016 election, is using different methods to hide itself better.

• Twitter Moves to Target Fake Videos and Photos

  5 February 2020 New York Times

  
  

  While stopping short of an outright ban, the social media company plans to label or take down material that appears to have been digitally manipulated.

• Fake ‘Likes’ Remain Just a Few Dollars Away, Researchers Say

  6 December 2019 New York Times

  
  

  Despite Big Tech’s attempts to combat manipulation, companies that sell clicks, likes and followers on social media are easy to find.

• So the internet didn’t turn out the way we hoped

  14 November 2019 New York TImes

  
  

  The Internet dream became a nightmare. What will become of it now?

• At Least 70 Countries Have Had Disinformation Campaigns, Study Finds

  26 September 2019 New York Times

  
  

  At Least 70 Countries Have Had Disinformation Campaigns, Study Finds.

• Viral visuals driving social media manipulation on YouTube, Instagram: researchers

  26 September 2019 reuters

  
  

  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-disinformation/viral-visuals-driving-social-media-manipulation-on-youtube-instagram-researchers-idUSKBN1WB0ED

• China becomes a ‘global disinformation superpower’ says report into online propaganda

  26 September 2019 Sky News

  
  

  More than 70 countries are now sharing misinformation online and politicians are using propaganda tools to garner support.

• Decision by tech giants to ban Irish abortion ads was ‘too little, too late’

  18 October 2018 Irish Times

  
  

  Fake news researcher sides with critics over ineffective move by Google and Facebook

• Trump’s claim that Google is biased against him distracts from tech’s bigger issues: Expert

  5 September 2018 CNBC

  
  

  Trump last week accused Google of rigging search results to prioritize negative coverage and left-leaning outlets — an academic says that distracts from bigger issues.

• Data-protection laws must be extended to political parties

  22 March 2018 Globe and Mail

  
  

  Samantha Bradshaw is a senior fellow at the Canadian International Council. She is also a D.Phil. candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute and a researcher on the Computational Propaganda Project at Oxford University.

• Tech Tent: The battle with the bots

  23 February 2018 BBC News

  
  

  Is the battle against online propaganda already being lost as AI puts powerful new weapons in the hands of the fake news merchants?

• Twitter bot purge prompts backlash

  21 February 2018 BBC News

  
  

  "This is a company that's under a lot of heat to clean up its act in terms of how its platform has been exploited to spread misinformation and junk news," said Samantha Bradshaw from the University of Oxford's Computational Propaganda Project.